Manufacturing processes that produce silicon integrated circuit devices include a sequence of steps that produce layers on semiconductor substrates by deposition steps and subsequently partially or completely by etching steps. A conventional dry etching procedure employs a plasma to convert a process gas into a mixture of neutral, reactive species and charged particles that material on a semiconductor substrate.
During plasma processing operations, interior surfaces of plasma processing chambers are exposed to the flux of energetic ions, photons and various neutral atoms and molecules that are generated by the plasma discharge, and to various reactions that occur in the processing of semiconductor substrates.